Summary: Methodological challenges for
understanding cognitive development
in infants
Richard N. Aslin and Jo´ zsef Fiser
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
Studies of cognitive development in human infants have
relied almost entirely on descriptive data at the beha-
vioral level ­ the age at which a particular ability
emerges. The underlying mechanisms of cognitive
development remain largely unknown, despite attempts
to correlate behavioral states with brain states. We
argue that research on cognitive development must
focus on theories of learning, and that these theories
must reveal both the computational principles and the
set of constraints that underlie developmental change.
We discuss four specific issues in infant learning that
gain renewed importance in light of this opinion.
Introduction
Over the past 40 years, research on human cognitive
development has revealed a set of surprisingly sophisti-